On a flight line, an aircraft may be vulnerable to high energy blunt impacts (HEBI) from support vehicles and ground support equipment (GSE) such as cargo belt loaders, luggage carts, aircraft refuelers, catering vehicles, ground power units, airport buses and passenger boarding stairs. HEBIs may be particularly likely to occur as a result of the aircraft being impacted by a luggage cart, cargo container or other vehicle during loading or unloading of the aircraft. The challenge with on-aircraft HEBI incidents is the potential for impacts to the aircraft with no visible indication that an impacting event has occurred. Therefore, there is a need for a cost-effective means of determining when and where a HEBI has occurred so that proper non-destructive evaluation (NDE) of the impact area—and appropriate disposition—can be determined.
Accordingly, a blunt impact indicator tape and method in which a blunt impact indicator tape is placed on an impacting object or to an impacted surface to visually indicate and quantify blunt impact applied to the impacted surface is needed.